Massachusetts wildlife officials recapture Cape Cod Bear

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June 27, 2012 4:56:55 AM PDT

Eyewitness News

WELLFLEET, Mass. --

A black bear that showed up in suburban Boston is the same one that swam to Cape Cod on Memorial Day weekend, authorities say.

For the second time this month, wildlife officials used a tranquilizer dart on Tuesday to immobilize the bear so they could capture it. It happened after the bear climbed a tree in Brookline, drawing a crowd of onlookers and police officers.

On June 12, authorities relocated the 180-pound male bear to central Massachusetts after it wandered for two weeks on the Cape.

Wildlife officials said then that the bear's breeding instinct may have sparked its travels, with that trip marking the first time authorities believe a black bear visited the Cape.

Now authorities say they're relocating the bear to a remote location in western Massachusetts.

The bear was spotted Tuesday morning in a tree in Brookline's upscale Chestnut Hill neighborhood. An environmental police officer perched in a cherry picker and fired the dart at the bear, said Reginald Zimmerman, a spokesman for the state office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The startled bear initially climbed farther up the tree before tumbling about 80 feet to the ground.

Brookline police Chief Daniel O'Leary told reporters at the scene that the bear wasn't believed to be the one spotted in several other Boston suburbs recently. He said it was wearing tags indicating that it had been previously tracked.

Officials couldn't immediately remember another bear sighting in Brookline, but Zimmerman said the presence of the bear so close to Boston shouldn't be a major surprise.

"Bears have been in suburban areas and among people for many years," he said. "They are highly adaptable."